A crew works to restore power on a line that was damaged due an ice storm last week in Aiken, S.C. Tens of thousands are still powerless across the state. / Mary Ann Chastain, AP

by USA TODAY

by USA TODAY

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Tens of thousands of electric customers remain without power in South Carolina and Georgia a week after what officials have called the worst winter storm in a decade.

At midday Tuesday, about 20,000 customers in South Carolina were still waiting to have their power restored. Williamsburg and Aiken counties had the highest number of customers still in the dark.

But the 20,000 figure was down from the estimated 350,000 who lost service at the height of the storm that dropped snow, sleet and freezing rain on most of the state over three days last week.

In Georgia, about 11,500 homes and businesses were still without power Monday as a result of last week's winter storm. Nearly a million homes and businesses had lost power in Georgia, a large number of them in the hard-hit area of eastern Georgia, around Augusta.

In South Carolina, the state Emergency Management Division estimated that the storm created a million cubic yards of debris statewide.

Officials said damage and debris amounts were being totaled amid the possibility that there could be additional federal help for counties to remove debris and help repair the electric grid.

The agency said all warming shelters across the state would be closed by midday Tuesday.

Meanwhile, officials with the South Carolina Forestry Commission are trying to gauge how much damage the ice storm did to the state's forests. Commission spokesman Scott Hawkins said aerial surveys were underway, and crews were to be on the ground Tuesday to get a closer look at the damage.

Compiling a final figure on the damage is expected to take some time, he said.

Depending on the damage, there could be a request for federal assistance for landowners.

Officials have said the storm caused more damage than a similar ice storm in 2004. That storm caused an estimated $96 million damage to the state's timberlands.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All
rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.